After years of performing with different boy bands that dominated the charts, AJ McLean It is Joey Fatone are teaming up for a new tour, set to begin this month.
But before the pair embark on their collaborative A Legendary Night Tour, McLean (of Backstreet Boys fame) and Fatone (of *NSYNC fame) sat down for a new edition of “Spilling the E-Tea” and interviewed each other about his new venture, new music and memories of his boy band days.
“What was your first impression when you met me?” Fatone asked, recalling their first meeting in the early ’90s.
“My first impression was everlasting,” McLean said with a laugh. “We kind of gelled. Like you had a really outgoing personality…a really inviting personality and a great voice.”
According to Fatone, his impression of McLean was very similar. “I was like, ‘Man, the voice is cool as hell. It’s smooth. He’s sexy. He’s smart, but he’s got a weird edge,” Fatone recalled, before mocking McLean for his choice of sunglasses and glasses. sun simultaneously. as a fashion statement.
“Funny story – I don’t know if I’ve told you this before – we were in London. It was the opening night of a restaurant/club,” McLean recalled. “Titanic had just come out and Leo DiCaprio was in town during the promotion and there was only one bathroom upstairs (in this place).”
“So all these people were going up and down the stairs. So my security was downstairs. I was going up, I had the goggles and the goggles on. Leo was coming down the stairs, and I think he might have been a little intoxicated. ” said McLean. “He looked at me and said, ‘What’s all this?’ He grabbed my glasses, pulled them off and let them go.”
“They broke my glasses, cut off my nose, and then he laughed and left!” McLean claimed. “Cut to: I see him many years later, Howie (Dorough) and I saw him at the SNL 40th (anniversary special in 2015), and he gets into the elevator. He had just done The Return and Howie said, ‘Man, now’s your chance! Bring it back, bring it back! And Leo said, ‘AJ! Good to see you, man. I’m like, ‘Hey, good to see you, buddy.’ He’s like, ‘This is my mom.’ And I’m (thinking) like, ‘Oh, man…’ This was my chance, but not in front of dear old Mom.”
“Okay, okay, you can’t do that,” Fatone chimed in with a laugh.
Looking away from the past and toward the future, Fatone asked, “What are you most looking forward to when we start touring together?”
“I’m looking forward to the kind of spontaneity that is this tour, this show,” McLean said. “You know, the fact that we can literally flip people’s script every night and just try new things.”
He’s also looking forward to “experimenting, especially with this first round of shows.”
“We want to go everywhere with this thing. And honestly, I mean, we’re getting hit by Brazil, by Australia, by Europe,” he added. “So yeah, I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be amazing… This is something (we) never had the chance to do with our respective groups.”
“I’m always a team player in the sense of just performing,” shared Fatone. “So for me, if I can perform with someone like you, it will be amazing.”
In addition to the tour, McLean also recently released new music – a track called “Electric” – and explained that he is “a big fan of 80s funk,” which heavily inspired the song.
“I miss songs that have a great groove. That, (even) if there are no lyrics, makes you want to move, makes you feel good. You don’t want to skip that,” McLean said. “And that’s what ‘Electric’ is.”
Fatone and McLean’s co-headline A Legendary Night Tour kicks off March 15 in California and runs through July 20. McLean’s new single “Electric” is out now.
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